Tinubu denies rift with Buhari

National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has denied that his demands has soiled his relationship ?with President Muhammadu Buhari.

Fielding questions from State House correspondents after breaking of the Ramadan fast with the President at the Presidential Villa on Tuesday, Tinubu said he has no demands, saying party politics and leadership is about loyalty and commitment to the values which the leadership believes in.

Speaking on the purported soiled relationship, Tinubu said, “I have no demands of the party. If you understand what party politics and leadership is all about, it is about loyalty and commitment to the values which the leadership believes in.

“I believe in what the President believes in, I respect him and I stand firmly loyal to his course. So you can go to any length of speculation that you might want, I have not responded to all of that because I understand the President and the President understands me clearly”.

On the leadership crisis in the National Assembly, he said, “That is an area where I am very cautious of my position and my utterances. I still want to keep my side of the interpretation or analysis to be able to achieve a resolution of the matter as quickly as possible.

“I am backing what the President has carefully enumerated and articulated to the party. The party is supreme. The party must have disciplined leadership and followers. The party’s process must be respected because that is the confidence and the trust of the people.

“However in every environment, we should have conflict, that is politics and conflict resolution mechanism would be applied to resolve all the problems so we are there.
There is honour in every struggle and every competition, there must be honour in victory too”.

On how APC should avoid the mistake of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP?), the APC leader said, “We are different, we cannot be PDP, we are APC, we will not repeat their mistakes. We know their mistakes, errors, we understand what Nigeria wanted and Nigerians gave this party victory because of our manifesto.

“We are pro-people, we are progressives. We have had a conservative government in the last 16 years, this is a progressive party, just coming in barely 30 days. We understand the hope of Nigerians, we understand the expectations of Nigerians, we believe in that expectation and in our promise of prosperity to the people. We will not change that”, he said.